The second letter of the Roman alphabet, ancient and modern, corresponding, in position and power, to the Greek Beta, and Phœnician and Hebrew Beth, whence also its form is derived; representing the sonant labial mute, or lip-voice stop consonant. The plural has been written Bees, B’s, Bs.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gram., iii. (Zup. 6). Þá óðre niʓon consonantes synd ʓecwedene MVTAE, þæt synd dumbe. hi ne synd ná mid ealle dumbe, ac hi habbað lytle clypunge … þás ongynnað of him sylfum and ʓeendjað on þám clypjendlicum stafum. b, c, d, g, p, t ʓeendjað on e.
c. 1375. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. 1871, II. 239. Þis eire lernede first his a, bi, ce.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 42. Beauteous as Incke … Faire as a text B. in a Coppie booke.
1610. Chester’s Tri. (1844), Addr. 23. The chiefest part of this people-pleasing spectacle, consisted in three Bees, viz. Boyes, Beasts, and Bels.
1682. Bunyan, Holy War, Advt. Witness my name, if Anagram’d to thee, The letters make, Nu hony in a B.
1878. Daily News, 8 Jan., 5/2. He pronounces his P’s like B’s.
2. Phrases relating to the letter. Not to know a B from a bull’s foot, Not to know a B from a battle-dore: to be entirely illiterate.
1401. Pol. Poems, II. 57. I know not an A from the wyndmylne, ne a B from a bole foot.
1609. Dekker, Guls Horne-bk., 3. You shall not neede to buy bookes, no, scorne to distinguish a B from a battle dore.
1660. Howell, Eng. Prov., 16. He knoweth not a B. from a battle-door.
1846. Brackenridge, Mod. Chivalry, 43. There were members who scarcely knew B from a bulls-foot.
II. Used, like the other letters of the alphabet (see A, the letter), to indicate serial order, with the value of second, as quire B, the second ‘quire’ or sheet of a book, ‘Horse Artillery, B Brigade, B and C Batteries, Woolwich;’ (b., b.) the left-hand page or verso of a leaf, the second column of a page. The following uses are more special:
1. In Music: In England the 7th note of the scale of C major, which is called H in Germany, where B means the English B flat. B was the first note modified by a semitone in the musical scale, whence the signs ♭, originally a b with round bottom (= B ♭, Fr. B rond), and ♯, originally a b with square bottom (= B ♯, Fr. B carré), which since c. 1620 have been applied as indicating ‘flat’ and ‘natural’ to all notes of the scale. A piece of music ‘in B’ has as its main scale that beginning with B.
[c. 1450. Burlesque, in Rel. Ant., I. 83. Every clarke … seythe that a-re gothe before be-my.]
1597. Morley, Introd. Mus., 3. Every keye hath but one cleife except b fa, b mi.
1731. Swift, Apollo, Wks. 1755, IV. I. 161. For he could reach to B in alt.
1873. A. Coleridge, Moscheles, I. 271. Mendelssohn … played his charming Capriccio in B minor.
1879. Curwen, Mus. Theory, 73. The fourth [note] in the key of F is B flat.
2. In abstract reasoning, hypothetical argumentation, law, etc., B is put for a second or another person or thing. (Cf. A II. 4.)
1797. Tomlins, Law Dict., s.v. Agreement, If a bond or note be given by A., the more effectually to enable B. to bring about a match, etc.
1870. Bowen, Logic, 207. The two categorical formulas A is B, or A is not B.
1879. Browning, Dram. Lyrics, Wks. III. 92. A.’s book shall prop you up, B.’s shall cover you.
3. In Algebra: b. (see A II. 5.)
III. Abbreviations.
1. B. (Music) Bass, Basso. B. (Chem.) Boron. b., b., born. B. (in Academical degrees) Bachelor, or its Latin equivalent baccalaureus, as B.A. (or A.B.) Bachelor of Arts; B.C.L. Bachelor of Civil Law; B.D. Bachelor of Divinity; B.L. Bachelor of Law, also (Fr.) Bachelier-ès-lettres; B. S. Bachelor of Surgery; B.Sc. Bachelor of Science: LL.B. (Legum Baccalaureus) Bachelor of Laws; M. B. Bachelor of Medicine. B. (b.) in Cricket ‘Byes,’ b. bowled by. In other combinations as B.C. Before Christ. B.C. Bad character; a mark formerly set on a soldier on his expulsion from his regiment for gross misconduct; B. and S. Brandy-and-soda; B.V. (Beata Virgo) The Blessed Virgin.
2. B. or B. flat, a humorous euphemism for bug (Cimex lectularius).
1853. Dickens, Househ. Words, XX. 326. A stout negro of the flat back tribe—known among comic writers as B flats.
1867. Cornh. Mag., April, 450. That little busy B. which invariably improves the darkness at the expense of every offering traveller.
1881. T. Hughes, Rugby, Tennessee, 58. I had seen and slain, though not felt, an insect suspiciously like a British B flat.
